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Tate: There's no dancing around the subject of the 'war chant' ban

Related Topics: The News-Gazette

A new football season is upon us. Saturday's Illini home opener against Ball State should be the hot topic of the week.

In an obvious UI misstep, however, it has been supplanted by an unnecessary distraction — that of banning a lingering connection to the Chief Illiniwek tradition, the "war chant." The uproar isn't as much about the elimination of the drum beat as it is about reviving the genuine sore spot, the retirement of Chief Illiniwek a decade ago, and creating concern that the popular "Three-in-One" halftime music is in the chancellor's telescopic sights.

This firestorm, then, is mostly about those feeling long-harbored resentment about what happened before, and a growing concern about what might happen next.